Bold Experiment

For China-bound travelers in decades past, the first glimpse of the
People's Republic was often the sleepy border town of Shumchun, a short
walk across a bridge from the British colony of Hong Kong. Visitors
sensed immediately that they were in another country, a world apart
from the bustle of capitalist Hong Kong. Men and women in baggy pants
moved at quarter-speed in a changeless setting of rural stupor.

No longer. Shenzhen (the new spelling under the Pinyin system) is now a
vast building site. Construction crews stir dust as they dig sewers,
build roads and prepare foundations for factories...